Kronos 3 expected Launch

[Gwendal]

Did you guys (and gals) see Roland's latest announcement?

Go to Youtube and check out the SH-4d.

That's what the Nautilus SHOULD have been. And at that price, I suspect Roland is going to sell a fair number.

...it is not a workstation at all.

[Gwendal]

.z

[Gwendal]

]

Does someone know when the successor Kronos 3 is expected?

Sadly workstations, in a Kronos/Nautilus format, is not a good commercial option.

The issues are mainly about the sequencer.

I don't like DAWs, but they have some advantages :
- way, way more options to manipulate tracks and polish the "master"
- better visibilty and comfort of use with a big (or several) screen(s)
- can integrate third part vst and plugins


So if the Kronos successor is not a workstation that compete with DAWs, but is just a keyboard with a collection of sounds... that has to be plugged to a DAW, then the only potential buyers would be a niche of old timers with money that want a slightly upgraded version of their old toy.

For me a commercialy competitive workstation must be "pc-DAW-less".
So Korg would have to invest into a real 64bit OS, and either write down their own cubase or sign a partnership with a DAW editor.

External synth modules like the wavestate or the opsix are cheap to conceive, cheap to manufacture and are sold by thousands every year.
Just the opposite of a workstation. Expensive to concieve, expensive to build, and sold to a (dying) niche.

So sorry...Nautilus is very probably the death of the kronos.
No kronos 3.

[KK]

If Korg had presented the sh-4d, a basic synth external module fully oriented hiphop, as the successor od the kronos, the reference of the workstations, except if done on april the first, korg would had to face the heaviest shitstorm of the musical industry.

[McHale]

...it is not a workstation at all.

I'll try this again for you.

It's clear at the time of the Nautilus release Korg had nothing new to offer so they cancelled the Kronos, came out with the stripped down version of Nautilus and not a single Kronos owner was interested. Had they released the Kronos/Nautilus in a SH-4D/Force/One type package they would have cleaned up. Korg is so late to the table in this market that t's ridiculous.

Better?

[kronoSphere]

May I add to Gwendal's comment this :

When we have a Kronos and a DAW we have finally many Kronos at hands and not, anymore, just one Kronos.
Combis can be melted and so on !

And that is another big advantage of a DAW with Kronos

[Sharp]

I’d love it if KORG took a swing at doing something like an OpenLabs Neko. The Neko was way ahead of it’s time, but the time maybe right now for such a product.

Heck, I'd build my own if there was an ATX Keyboard Case option available, same as I do for building custom PC's.

Regards
Sharp.

[ITguy54]

I’d love it if KORG took a swing at doing something like an OpenLabs Neko. The Neko was way ahead of it’s time, but the time maybe right now for such a product.

Heck, I'd build my own if there was an ATX Keyboard Case option available, same as I do for building custom PC's.

Regards
Sharp.

The original prototype of OASYS shown at NAMM a long time ago, was similar in concept. That’s why the name meant “Open Architecture”. The OASYS that was released to market was fixed architecture.

[Broadwave]

I’d love it if KORG took a swing at doing something like an OpenLabs Neko. The Neko was way ahead of it’s time, but the time maybe right now for such a product.

Heck, I'd build my own if there was an ATX Keyboard Case option available, same as I do for building custom PC's.

Regards
Sharp.

I built something similar, with a touch screen many years ago. It worked very well untill the M-Audio 1814 interface crapped out on me

https://www.flickr.com/photos/arp2600cl ... 0306542466

[KK]

I built something similar, with a touch screen many years ago. It worked very well untill the M-Audio 1814 interface crapped out on me

Wow, that was impressive ! Great work !

[Koekepan]

Now that I think about it, Gadget is, in some ways, KORG's answer to the Neko with a more limited pallette.

Not the greatest DAW, but a good sketchpad.

[Sharp]

I built something similar, with a touch screen many years ago. It worked very well untill the M-Audio 1814 interface crapped out on me

https://www.flickr.com/photos/arp2600cl ... 0306542466

lol.... now that’s brilliant. WOW...!!!! I absolutely love it.

Makes me want to build my own even more now. I have Native Instruments KOMPLETE KONTROL SL61 MK1 I could happily use for components.

Ooohhh I want one...lol...

[Gwendal]

May I add to Gwendal's comment this :

When we have a Kronos and a DAW we have finally many Kronos at hands and not, anymore, just one Kronos.
Combis can be melted and so on !

And that is another big advantage of a DAW with Kronos

Yep...so you don't want a workstation but just a sounds library.
You can already "melt" combis within the T1/Triton/Oasys/Kronos sequencers.

The main goal of a workstation, is, like its name indicates, to have a work station.
You do everything in/on one device.

Plugging a "workstation" to a DAW is just screaming : "hey this keyboard IS NOT a workstation, I need a DAW to work".

[Gwendal]

...it is not a workstation at all.

I'll try this again for you.

It's clear at the time of the Nautilus release Korg had nothing new to offer so they cancelled the Kronos, came out with the stripped down version of Nautilus and not a single Kronos owner was interested. Had they released the Kronos/Nautilus in a SH-4D/Force/One type package they would have cleaned up. Korg is so late to the table in this market that t's ridiculous.

Better?

Well ... I still don't understand your point.

Korg did release the Nautilus because they stopped working with the Copyright owners of the Karma. So for legal reasons Korg could not sell any Kronos anymore.

To avoid to have a hole in their line of product, they quick and dirty created the Nautilus doing a copy of the Kronos; slightly modified the 32 OS system of the Kronos, removed the Karma, made it simplier, remove the aftertouch (some complains received from Kronos users...easier to remove it than to solve the issues), removed some controls (for whatever reason...probably cheaper).

The Nautilus was introduced by Korg themselves not as the successor of the Kronos, but as the "little brother" of the Kronos.
All musicians quickly realized it was neither a successor nor a little brother, but just an ersatz of the Kronos.

Nonetheless, the Nautilus is supposed to be a workstation.
That means musicians buy it to have a single INDEPENDANT device where you can compose with the help of a midi+audio sequencer.
Using a workstation "live" is not the purpose of a workstation, even if the Kronos was liked too as a live performance keyboard.

A SH-4D is not a workstation.
It is not even a live performance keyboard.
As far as I have understood (*), it even only has a single LFO...the Nautilus has 4 LFO...per voice! PER VOICE!
The SH-4D is a peripheric device aimed to be plugged into a DAW.
The SH4D targets the hiphop/LowFi customers.
The Workstations target...well everyone from the Metal (Dream Theater) to movies scores, thru techno or pop musicians.

So in short the SH4D is exactly the opposite of the main purpose/usage of a workstation.
I don't get the point of this comparison.

It is like if you tell me Dassault aviation should have transformed their Rafale fighter into a Cesna 162 because the Cesna 162 is more user friendly thru your eyes.

Else Korg guys are neither stupid nor unaware of the market.
Their line of products opsix, wavestate, modwave are the ones competing with the SH4D and similar products...for similar customers (hiphop/LowFi).


(*) I checked and found this that confirms the SH4D has only a single LFO : https://www.reddit.com/r/synthesizers/c ... poiled_me/

[StephenKay]

Korg did release the Nautilus because they stopped working with the Copyright owners of the Karma. So for legal reasons Korg could not sell any Kronos anymore.

That's completely not true. I would have been happy to continue working with Korg to put KARMA in their keyboards. They chose not to continue to use it.

They could have put it in the Nautilus if they had wanted to. It was not up to me.

From what I understand, they could no longer get the parts to continue to make the Kronos without completely redesigning it.